The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • For Lagos, For Ambode

    For Lagos, For Ambode

    I remember an incident a few years ago when President Jonathan was asked by Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, to give the state a special status. The governor of example must have been bewildered when the President responded with a chilling parable. He said his uncle made his money in Abuja and spent it in Lagos. That is the hazard when a major state, and the nation’s most important city, is ignored in the centre. Since Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s reign, Lagos has had to survive with imagination. The centre ignored it and even harangued it, a la Obasanjo. As the city with the biggest population, influx and diversity of people from elsewhere and business hive, Lagos is like New York or London or Los Angeles. In spite of the political hue of the city, the centre in those countries acknowledges their places and roles. Under Asiwaju and BRF, it has been a fight against the grain.

    Now, the battle to get the centre started from Lagos, with Asiwaju, the best politician ever in the nation’s history, gaining the centre with adroit work of coalition with the APC. Now that LAGOS has gained the centre, how could it go to the opposition? And lose all it fought for in about two decades? Not to a man who once joined Tompolo and company to call for trouble if Jonathan lost, or who went venal and asked his supporters to compare who was more handsome between Jonathan and Buhari.

    The APC In Lagos has been a serious business with foundation set, and then improved with imagination. And Akinwunmi Ambode, ex-Harvard, Ex-Wharton Business School, Pennsylvania, first-class accountant in school and practice, who worked in all parts of Lagos and lived there, is the natural man for the job. Governing Lagos has always been a serious matter and not a contest of handsomeness. We need a man who will take Lagos with a steady hand to the next platform. We want a man who has experience but not an experimenter.

  • Ambode’s ‘CHELSEA UNITED’

    Why would anyone want to leave a winning path? This is the key question for the electorate ahead of the Lagos State governorship election expected to hold on April 11. The question perhaps requires no answer because there may be none; or more reasonably, because there is unlikely to be any reasonable answer. Guided by reason, the voters ought to continue on the path of reason.

    Five months before the All Progressives Congress (APC) Lagos State governorship hopeful and frontrunner, Akinwunmi Ambode, 51,  formally expressed his ambition at a well-attended October 24 ceremony at the Onikan Stadium last year, he published a piece in celebration of the state’s 47th anniversary. The May 27 article followed Ambode’s then controversial May 15 public endorsement by the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu. The preeminent Lagos monarch had declared at a book launch at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos: “The elders of Lagos have said that Ambode will be governor…The elders have been meeting…We review things regularly…The elders have said that Ambode should be the next governor of Lagos.” It is remarkable that the king’s confident prophecy is on course.

    Interestingly, in his piece titled “Happy Anniversary: “Lagos State”, Ambode wrote: “As Lagos turns fifty in the next three years, therefore, the future beckons on whoever would take over the baton in the relay of enduring people-friendly policies to solidify and build on these worthy legacies.” His reference to legacies was a tribute to the governmental accomplishments of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was the state governor from 1999 to 2007, and Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, whose second-term ends this year after succeeding Tinubu at the helm in 2007.

    It is worth noting that Ambode illuminated his administrative background, and gave an insight into his edge over rivals. He said: “Having been in a vantage position to work with the last two governors for 13 years, I conclude this piece as I share with you all one lesson I learnt from serving under them by using the football anecdote.” According to Ambode, “My two former bosses, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mr. Bbatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), are both great supporters of Manchester United, while I, their ward, am a Chelsea fan. I have come to regard Asiwaju as the “special one” because, like the famous bearer of that title, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, he laid the solid foundation for the evolution of modern Lagos. Like ‘Mourinho’, he has the vision and the winning formulae. In May 2003, at his inaugural speech for his second term in office, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu declared that “we will build with vigour on foundation laid in the first term until the momentum of positive change becomes forever irreversible in Lagos State.”

    Ambode continued: “But the special one needs a special manager and an ebullient visionary to accomplish the goals. If Lagos State were Manchester United, His Excellency, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) is the quintessential and indefatigable Alex Ferguson. He brought in his Midas touch in all facets of governance to actualise that positive change in the development and growth of Lagos State.”

    Finally, Ambode wrote: “So, where does that leave me, their student? I learnt first that in any club managed by these two managers, there is no room for a David Moyes. And I pledged to myself that if I am ever entrusted with the responsibility of administering a football club, I will name it CHELSEA UNITED, if just to assure my two bosses that I learnt from their different but complementary styles in building and running a formidable team.”

    In an important sense, Ambode is on the threshold of “administering a football club”, if political governance may be seen from such perspective. His experiential empowerment cannot be discounted. To go by the saying, “Experience is the best teacher,” Ambode leads the field by a wide gap in the governorship race. Of course, it is another question whether Ambode has been a teachable student.

    For an answer, it is useful to highlight Fashola’s well-quoted testimonial, which Ambode described as “my gold medal for public service.” It is particularly noteworthy that at the time Fashola wrote the glowing letter of commendation following Ambode’s voluntary 2012 retirement after a 27-year career in the state civil service, it was not a political statement and was not politically relevant. However, with a few days to the governorship poll, Fashola’s tribute to Ambode deserves to be recognised as a political medallion.

    Fashola wrote: “I write on behalf of the people of Lagos to commend your high sense of dedication, selflessness and integrity which you brought to bear on the civil service. I wish to specifically remark that working closely with you has been of tremendous mutual benefit, particularly in the present administration.” He continued: “You have displayed high sense of professionalism and have been a good team player, guided by the philosophy of a true public officer, who must place himself last while rendering service to the public. We are convinced that your brilliance and zeal will make you excel in your future endeavours.”

    It is worth mentioning that the medallist’s background includes stints as the Accountant- General of Lagos State from 2006 and 2012, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, and Auditor-General for Local Government. These features of Ambode’s profile demonstrate that he is probably the most experienced individual in terms of familiarity with the state civil service operations to seek the position of governor since Lagos State was created in 1967.

    What about his impact? Ambode’s critical role in the creation of the State Treasury Office (STO) should be of special significance in rating him as a governorship candidate. The STO has been acknowledged as a ground-breaking development which has fundamentally improved how the state’s funds are raised, budgeted, managed and spent. It goes without saying that Ambode’s confirmed authoritative grasp of treasury issues gives him a superior advantage.

    What about his clear-sightedness? “If we take the concept of resource generation, allocation and distribution into cognisance and apply the principles of good governance, we will achieve economic growth and development,” Ambode said while presenting a paper titled “Public Finance: Probity and Accountability” at a workshop organised in August last year by the Lagos State Government and the Lagos Business School.

    It is quite reassuring to know that Ambode signified his intention to continue on the path of meritorious governance charted by Tinubu and Fashola by speaking of “continuity of excellence”. Ambode’s “CHELSEA UNITED” football metaphor holds a winning promise that the electorate ought to appreciate and endorse.

  • Now change has come

    In this column last Monday, I wrote under the title “Beyond the elections”. The article which was put together days before the election and published before the results of the presidential and national assembly elections were released, had examined two possible scenarios that could play out after the elections.

    These were the likelihood that it may come out rancour free with the results accepted by all. The other simulated outcome was that of violence leading to breakdown of law and order in some parts of the country arising from a disputed outcome. The latter speculation was further given fillip by the foul political environment that arose in the desperation of politicians to control the minds of the electorate and threats of mayhem from sundry quarters should the election go in certain ways.

    We also took very serious note of the peace accords signed by both President Jonathan and General Buhari to maintain the peace during and after the polls. On the basis of these accords, we further contended that in a very peaceful election, the nation would have been on the threshold of history as all predictions of cataclysm that have instilled fear in the people leading to many fleeing to their ancestral homes, would have come to naught. So also would the prediction of doomsday for the corporate existence of Nigeria by some foreign interests.

    The column also examined the inevitability of change in this country. The main thesis of our presentation was that change was imminent in this country irrespective of which party comes into power as the consciousness of the people have been aroused to its dynamics. That was our summation of the heuristic value of some of the issues raised during the campaigns by the opposition and the possible reaction to them by the government in power if it succeeds in winning the election.

    That election has come and gone. It has also been lost and won with the emergence of Muhammad Buhari as the president-elect. Its outcome has been generally accepted though it had its own problems. The man at the helm of affairs, President Jonathan displayed a rare show of statesmanship by not only conceding defeat but went ahead to congratulate his opponent at the tension soaked election. That is a rare feat in this part of the world where leaders and sundry political contenders cling tenaciously to power irrespective of their unpopularity and the verdict of the people.

    Africa is replete with such leaders. And here at home, matters are not remedied by the inability of politicians to cultivate the culture of accepting defeat. Coming from an incumbent President, there is cause to celebrate. At last, we can beat our chests and say in unison that the peace accord did the miracle. There is a ray of hope in the horizon that we are on the path to parting ways with some of our ruinous political attitudes and orientations. So, we have been left with the first scenario.

    Even though subdued anger and disgust cannot be ruled out completely, everybody seems to be happy that peace has after all reigned supreme irrespective of these feelings. Everybody seems to be satisfied and reassured that Nigeria has been rescued from the precipice of disintegration to which it was irretrievably headed.

    With this also, predictions of doom and cataclysm of unimaginable proportion have come to naught, albeit for now. Those who fled their places of residence for fear that harm may come their way after the election may now return. Perhaps, the relative peace we are now savouring is because Jonathan lost and accepted his defeat in good faith. Matters would have taken a different dimension if he had disputed the election outcome. The situation may also have been different if Buhari had lost the election. These possibilities should not be ignored as we celebrate.

    In effect, there was the hand of God in all the events that brought about the current pass. And the gloomy atmosphere has given way to a very bright one. So, there is every reason for people to be happy especially the poor who bear the brunt of the inadequacies of those who superintend over the affairs of this country. They are the ones who would have suffered immeasurably had the elections degenerated into violence. Nobody died after all. Those who reportedly died met their fate while happily celebrating the victory of their preferred candidates. May their souls rest in peace.

    Now, the much-clamoured change has come with the successful election of General Muhammad Buhari to run this country for the next four years. Change has come with the defeat of the PDP, a party that has ruled this country for over 15 years and had boasted to rule ad infinitum. That boast is now history.  Change has also come from the ascendancy of the APC into power at the national level. Change has come for the first time in our history for an incumbent president to be defeated in an election. So change is all over the place especially since that mantra was the key campaign slogan of the APC.

     

    And if we still borrow from our article under reference; that will not be the end to it all. Soon Nigerians will begin to contend with the reality of the new dawn. They will soon begin to contend with the prospects of what this change holds for them. They will begin to look up to the new things to come in the way this country had hitherto been run. They will begin to look out for fundamental changes in the structure and organization of this country in such a way that can unleash the creative energies of the constituents to fasten the pace of development and give a new lease of life to the suffering masses.

    The consciousness of the ordinary people has been aroused to the inevitability of change in statecraft. Their minds have been attuned to different approaches in the running of affairs of the government. They desire real change. That change must permeate every strata of the nation’s social fabric. It must proceed beyond vote catching strategy to redirect the resources of this country for the overall public good.

    Change cannot take place in the face of the pervasive corruption that has over the years left our people hewers of wood and fetchers of water despite the immense resources nature has placed at our backyard. Change will turn an aberration if ethnic and primordial considerations, which took ascendancy to an all time high during the elections, become prime considerations in the distribution of public resources. Change will only endure when we build national institutions that will serve all Nigerians irrespective of who is in power and from which sections of the country he got the largest chunk of electoral support.

    Good a thing, Buhari has made the fight against corruption a cardinal objective of his regime. He says the fight counts most and he is determined to make the difference in this regard. He has said it all. But the challenge can be daunting. If he can achieve that for this country, he would have written his name in gold. But for him to do that successfully, he must be resolute and firm. There are entrenched interests here and there he will have to contend with.

    The fight against corruption should also be matched with institutionalisation of a new social order based on equity, justice and fairness; a new order that will consign to the dust bin of history vestiges of alienation and marginalization of the constituent units in this unity in diversity. Then, change would have endured with the country on a steady march to peace, progress and unhindered development.

  • Problem beyond the polls

    Two days after the country’s presidential poll, the  immortal lines from Shakespeare’s Macbeth are relevant : “When the hurlyburly’s done – When the battle’s lost and won.”  Against the background of the continuing anti-terror battle, the hurly-burly is certainly not done.

    News of the latest garland for Boko Haram, the Islamist guerilla force that has terrorised the country since 2009, deserves attention.  The group’s insurgency was the fourth deadliest conflict in the world in 2014 and was responsible for 11, 529 deaths, according to a release by an international think tank, the Project for the Study of the 21st Century. It is noteworthy that the think tank said the figure of fatalities could be underestimated.

    However, the estimation of the human suffering resulting from the destructive imagination and vision of the insurgents is more accurate. “We are seeing tremendous suffering,” UN Assistant Secretary General Robert Piper was quoted as saying. He continued: “We estimate that only about 20 percent of agricultural land in Borno State (the hardest-hit area) was harvested last season.” Piper, the coordinator of the UN’s humanitarian work in Africa’s Sahel region, pointed out that the situation “leaves a massive deficit.”

    Also, Piper noted that there were “dramatic rates of acute malnutrition” among the displaced children in Nigeria. In statistical terms, he highlighted a recent survey of displaced children around Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, which showed that over 35 percent of them were malnourished. “That is very, very high,” he was quoted as saying.

    This picture of disturbing death and dying demonstrates that the hurly-burly is not done and the battle has not been lost and won.  Shockingly, what many internally displaced persons have gone through, especially those uprooted by Boko Haram, came to light via a statement by the Director of Information, The Catholic Church Diocese of Maiduguri, Rev. Fr. Gideon Obasogie. He said: “A good number of those trapped around the Cameroonian borders are gradually finding their way into Maiduguri. Counting their ordeals, some will tell you how they fed on grass and insects. A group from Pulka community alone buried over 80 children, who took ill in the bush and died.”  Over 90, 000 Catholics have been uprooted by the developing tragedy, Obasogie noted, adding that the church has spent over N3 million on internal refugees at different locations in Maiduguri, Borno State.

    Relevant to this appalling picture is the information by the Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr. Sani Sidi, at last year’s opening of its annual consultative meeting with the heads of States Emergency Management Agencies. Sidi said about 734,062 persons were internally displaced by conflicts and disasters in various parts of the country; 676, 975 of them were displaced by conflicts and 66,087 by natural disasters. It is significant that he pointed out: “Disaster occurrences and the number of affected people have risen significantly in recent years.”

    It is not clear how NEMA arrived at these figures, and it is worth mentioning that they are a far cry from the statistics publicised by the 2014 Report of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council, which indicate that out of 33 million internal refugees across the world, about 3.3 million Nigerians are internally displaced because of the Boko Haram insurgency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.  The yawning gap between the positions of the two bodies concerning the number of dislodged victims of the six-year-old violent campaign by Islamist terrorists in the affected areas is a cause for concern because it suggests that the scale of the problem may not have been captured and is likely to be beyond the range of the available figures.

    How devastating and disruptive Boko Haram has become is clear from its influence on the controversial rescheduling of the general elections.  To properly grasp the group’s role, it is useful to quote the February 7 statement by the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, on why the elections were postponed a week to the first vote. According to Jega, “Last Wednesday, which was a day before the Council of State meeting, the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) wrote a letter to the Commission, drawing attention to recent developments in four Northeast states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Gombe currently experiencing the challenge of insurgency. The letter stated that security could not be guaranteed during the proposed period in February for the general elections.”

    Jega continued: “This advisory was reinforced at the Council of State meeting on Thursday where the NSA and all the Armed Services and Intelligence Chiefs unanimously reiterated that the safety and security of our operations cannot be guaranteed, and that the Security Services needed at least six weeks within which to conclude a major military operation against the insurgency in the Northeast; and that during this operation, the military will be concentrating its attention in the theatre of operations such that they may not be able to provide the traditional support they render to the Police and other agencies during elections.”

    It is not surprising that the magical and illogical six-week time frame set for the conquest of insurgents who have carried out terroristic activities since 2009 has passed with Boko Haram still threatening and frightening. Optimism won’t win the terror war, no matter how well-dressed.  The naked pessimism of the people is unmistakable.

    The reports of recaptured territories by the country’s troops in a regional collaboration with four neighbouring nations, Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, have been captivating largely because the people never knew exactly what had been captured. Reports said the contributions to the multi-national force total 8, 700 individuals and its objective is to “foster a safe and secure environment in the impacted regions.”

    With the eventual adoption of a frontal attack, it is comical that National Security Adviser Col Sambo Dasuki (retd) last year introduced a simplistic angle to the anti-terror campaign.  Dasuki’s amazing “Roll out of Nigeria’s Soft Approach to Counter Terrorism”, whatever its theoretical merits, represented an ill-defined all-inclusive method. According to him, “The soft approach provides us with a frame-work that identifies the roles and responsibilities of every segment of our society: the governors, local council chairmen, national and state assembly members, political parties, trade unions, the private sector, traditional institutions, ministers and other government officials, academics, in fact, a ‘whole-of-society’ approach that involves everyone vertically and horizontally to confront violent extremism.”  It was a mystifying approach and an exaggerated perspective that glossed over the fundamental point, which is, confronting and crushing terrorism with the logic of superior sovereignty.

  • Beyond the elections

    By the time this article is published, the presidential and national assembly elections would have been over. Possibly also, the results may have become a matter of public knowledge. Successful candidates would be jubilating while there will be gnashing of teeth by losers. That is the typical payoff in a zero sum game. This scenario is more likely to be noticed at the presidential level given the high stakes and bitter acrimony that attended the campaigns for that elated office.

    Possibly too, all the predictions of cataclysm of unmitigated dimension that have seen people fleeing back in droves to their ancestral homes may have come to naught or isolated violence leading to loss of lives and destruction of property may be playing out. These are the possibilities that we may have to contend with after the elections. But the last eventuality is the one most dreaded by all given the danger it portends for lives and property and our corporate survival as a nation.

    That is why on two occasions, both President Goodluck Jonathan and his rival Gen. Muhammadu Buhari have signed an accord to maintain the peace both before and after the elections irrespective of their outcome. It was very heart refreshing watching the two rivals embrace themselves after the accord to the admiration of people. That is the way it should be. It is not a do-or-die affair since the reasons ostensibly adduced for aspiring to that high office revolves around the promotion of the general good of the people. An election that results in grave harm on the citizens’ detracts substantially from the essence of representative democracy. It gives the sad impression that what counts most is the overall interest of the contenders rather than the electorate who remain the ultimate sovereign. That is the contradiction that comes with violence leading to loss of lives and property.

    If commitment to peace during and after elections by the two major contenders from the PDP and the APC are any thing to repose hope on, the election may come out successful. We hope this will be so. It is also hoped that politicians would go beyond the signing of peace accords and restrain their supporters from acts that may lead to break down of law and order. But if the ruinous attitude of our politicians and refusal to concede defeat are still much with us, there is every thing to expect that the outcome of the elections may not be completely acceptable to all.

    If this scenario leads to violence, the accord would have come as an exercise in futility. Then, our security agencies will have to contend with restoring law and order in the areas stricken by post election violence. And when this is juxtaposed with the challenge of insurgency in some parts of the country, the energies of the security agencies will be greatly stretched.  But where nothing of such happens, Nigerians would have been on the threshold of history. It would portray the country as one that has started learning the ropes in democratic conduct. It will be an unmistakable signal that our people are gradually internalizing the culture of democracy. Then, those who initiated the peace accord would have reason to beat their chests celebrating the success of their efforts. That would be a thing to cherish.

    But that will not be the end to it. Soon, Nigerians will begin to contend with the reality of the new dawn. They will have to face the reality of what prospects the future holds for the nation irrespective of who among the contenders won the presidential race. They will begin to look up for the new things to come in the way this country is run. They will begin to look out for fundamental changes in the structure and organization of the country such that can galvanize the creative energies of the constituents to fasten the pace of development.

    Promises have been made; hope has been raised to an all time high. And coming at a time the price of oil in the international market has declined considerably with attendant devaluation of the naira, Nigerians will be full of expectations on the change to come either from the PDP or the APC.

    We say change because from the way things are, it is obvious that things are not going to be the same again. The consciousness of the ordinary people has been drawn to the inevitability of change in the way things are run in this country. They have been sold to the desirability of change in the conduct of statecraft.  Their eyes have been exposed to the fact that every society is in a state of flux and nothing is as constant as change. Change will definitely come given the alternative paradigms that have been offered by the existence of a credible opposition.

    If the opposition comes to power, it will likely initiate policies to make the difference and justify its mantra. If the ruling party succeeds, it cannot proceed with business as usual and still hope to be in reckoning. So, something positive will definitely come our way. It is the similitude of dialectics in action; a clash between thesis and anti-thesis that will ultimately give rise to some form of synthesis. That is what one foresees from the chain of events that have been unleashed as the political parties sought to take control of the minds of the electorate. People have been awakened to the reality that our leaders both past and present have not taken the necessary measures to quicken the pace of development without the distractions that emanate from a convoluted federal structure. There is the consciousness that Nigeria in its present form, cannot progress without some tinkering in its structure.

    Issues of true federalism: devolution of power, resource control, revenue sharing, state and local government creation and autonomy are recurring decimals that must as a matter of necessity be re-jigged.  It is obvious that these are some of the deficits standing against the progress and development of this country. They also relate very positively to the acrimony and bad blood that go with competition for the highest political office in the country. The point has been made before now that we need to whittle down the overwhelming powers of the central authority for us to move fast on the ladder of development.

    Despite the allure of this, some vested interests have for very selfish reasons, stood against its realization. They still root for centralization to enable them control the huge funds at the federal till. Yet, they want corruption to be reduced to its barest minimum. This is a remote possibility given the composition of the country and the thinking that political ascendancy is largely for prebendal predilections.   These are the issues that face whichever party wins the election. We must therefore proceed beyond the euphoria of electoral victory to confront extant systemic dysfunctions that have overtime, stood against the peace and development of this country. Their handling will make the difference between erecting this unity in diversity on a firm foundation and on sand.

  • What the people know

    What the people know

    We all looked forward to it. To some it came with trepidation, and to others with joy. To most, however, March 28 was the date of curiosity.

    The thrill of the voter, as I witnessed, was in being part of a common sense. Commonsense does not always factor in the common sense, but that is the beauty of democracy. The people have the right to be right or wrong, and that right to err and fall into folly is as sovereign as their country’s right of being.

    That was what I witnessed on March 28 as I cast my vote. It was a day to hope again that, unlike in 2011, I would not have to see another mandate of mistake.

    I did lament that Jonathan won the election in 2011, but I congratulated him all the same. In the piece, I prophesied that Nigeria had made a big mistake and his would be a regime of loose wallets, impunity and division along ethnic and religious lines.

    When I voted, I thought not about myself. I looked at the nation and its wreck in the past four years, and how the Nigerian people had a great capacity for endurance. But March 28, they had the opportunity to decide again if they loved the path they had taken, or if they desired an undiscovered country, full of possibilities.

    By the time of writing, I had information about trends in the polling, and I looked at the swing region: the southwest.

    Whatever anyone thought about the polls and who they favoured, the people already know something. Knowledge is a good thing and a dangerous thing. Once the people know something, how do you tell them something else? That is the meaning of accountability. One of the greatest assets of democracy in this age is the Internet, and the fact that messages travel at breakneck speed from one place to another. As the Bible says in the book of Daniels, “people shall go to and fro and knowledge shall increase.”

    This election season is the time people know a lot. It is the time they do not want to be cheated out of their patrimony. For instance, how does a person vote, in say, Mushin, and he and others in that district know who won, and in the final analysis, they hear that something else happened?

    Would they be dreaming their way out of the truth, or would they ask questions? Some philosophers have said the story of the Garden of Eden is about the inviolability of knowledge. What you know, you know. Even if you lie to yourself, you also know.

    True, Nigeria has had the capacity to lie to itself and live in false bliss. That is the reason we are not like Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore, whose country leapt at about the time we gained independence from Third World to First World.  His country had no resources except a natural harbour, and we had all the resources. But the difference between Nigeria and Lee’s Singapore is that we lived a lie.

    We stole our resources. We lied against each other on ethnic grounds and said one man’s God should punish the other man’s. While we were busy lying, Singapore fattened on the five Cs of capitalism: cash, cars, credit cards, condos and country clubs. Granted they did not have a flourishing democracy, but they were monolithic in thought at that time until they zipped into the free air of pluralism after Lee’s era.

    So we are still grappling with first principles. We still lie about all. We said we wanted PVC, and some said no. They were not only Luddites, but antediluvian. They lost that debate. Then they said we should not come near the card reader. They feared the machine, and did everything within their powers to unseat automaton. They failed again. The election took place, and in spite of hitches here and there, who would say it did not work? Where I voted, the machine read my identity like clockwork. Technology wants patience, and no technology ever devised ever worked with perfection. It is a human invention, and it can bear some of our imperfections. But its results best any human efforts. Hence they wanted it against the vultures of electoral fraud.

    Now, man would always invent things to subvert the process. ‘God made man upright,” says the good book, “but he has sought out many inventions.” We are seeing it now in the Rivers State deadlock. The APC says they could not vote without results sheets. What happened to those sheets? Those are the questions that we must answer. It is said that the way out of the genius of the card reader is to buy the result sheets from INEC officials, get high-tech people to compute the numbers so that the allotment of votes to the parties does not exceed the registered voter count, and thus ensure landslide victory for their party.

    That is man’s circuitous victory over technology. That brings me back to the people and what they know. If they know that they voted differently, no tech whiz kid can con the people into lying to themselves. It is particularly so in the southwest. Jefferson said his objection to democracy is election, and the only day it works is when the people go to the polls. After that, they are impotent until the next vote.

    If the people know they voted for a person and some political desperadoes change it, they will face the people.

    That was the story of June 12. German philosopher Nietzsche wrote about the notion of eternal return. He said some things keep recurring in history and they haunt civilization forever. We can avoid such returns when we take precautions. When the people know something and they do something about it, no one can stop them. It prompted Shakespeare to say, “we know what we know, but know not what we may be.” What the people may be is a consequence of being denied what they know. It is high time we stopped lying to ourselves. That way, the people will own their country.

    Vigilance is the key word, and as Wendell Philips noted, it is the price of liberty. But we cannot be free unless we are meticulous.

    The best example is from Delta State, where the women of Madangho town acted as the heroines of democracy. After they had cast their votes last Saturday, some soldiers drove into town and wanted whisk the ballot papers to a neighboring village called Ajudaiboh for collation. A PDP chieftain was waiting there. The women resisted. When the soldiers insisted, the women stripped naked and harassed the armed men out of town. They were vigilant, and they knew what they knew. The soldiers made them what they became: warriors of democracy. The women may not have heard of Maxim Gorky, Russian writer and revolutionary. They were kindred spirits. The Russian bard wrote, the only people who deserve freedom are those who are ready to fight for it everyday.

  • Again, here we go!

    All things being equal, the presidential and national assembly elections will hold in five days time. There is no foreseeable reason they should not hold after the initial postponement. This is more so given that the two major planks on which the shift was hinged have been very substantially addressed. The liberation and recapturing of local governments, towns and villages under the stranglehold of the Boko Haram insurgents have reasonably progressed. So also is the distribution of the PVC.

    The other matter of whether or not to deploy the card readers is now at the table of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in the sense that it is its prerogative to decide when and how to use them if it is fully satisfied with the outcome of the trials. Though, those experimental outings came out with some hitches, it is to be expected that the electoral body has taken note of them making, amends where necessary.

    Expectations are high that this set of elections should come and go. So much heat has been generated by this particular election that Nigerians are eager to have them pass by. The eagerness is not as much for any personal interest or enthusiasm but because of the general belief that this election could make or mar the country. Many are therefore desirous to have the elections pass by for them to resume their normal lives.

    Before now, many of our citizens living outside their ancestral homes had fled those areas for fear that harm may come their way. Many more are likely to flee days before the elections especially those residing in the northern parts of the country and Abuja. This is not a matter of speculation. Neither can it be dismissed as the doomsday prediction of an arm chair Journalist. It is real. The fear is palpable that unmitigated violence is likely to breakout thereafter irrespective of who wins. And in this regard, we have in mind the presidential election which at any rate comes first. There is general apprehension that its outcome is most likely to be disputed. And when such disputes arise, they manifest in violence often leading to the destruction of lives and property. This is more so as the election is viewed rightly or wrongly as a defining moment for the nation’s corporate survival.  Two factors account for this. The first has to do with the history of elections on these shores and the penchant by politicians not to accept defeat even when there is sufficient evidence they lost. This conclusion is very evident from the plethora of litigations that follow elections on these shores. Even where losers are known to have conceded defeat, congratulated their opponents with a promise not to challenge such verdict, it has been very disappointing seeing the same people reverse themselves only to proceed to the tribunals later. This election is unlikely to depart from this ruinous pattern. There is even more reasons for it to assume more dangerous dimension than previous ones.

    And this brings us to the second point. Despite whatever pretences one may wish to make, the election is largely seen from the prism of ethnic and religious lines. These factors have been palpable in the language of political discourses since campaigns began and even before then. The north wants power return to it as a matter of right. The south-south wants one of its own currently occupying that position to be given another term of four years before power can now move. There is yet to be any national consensus on the matter and we are going to the elections with such destabilizing and potentially explosive tendencies.

    There have also been threats from here and there if certain events go certain ways during this election. Accusing fingers have been pointed at each other by the major political parties. We have been inundated with accusations of plans by the political parties to rig the elections especially the ruling party. INEC has not been spared on this. If anything, the recent demonstrations in Lagos by some ethnic militias asking for the sack of Jega can only add to the general foul air that now surrounds the coming elections.

    The net effect of all these is the likelihood that the outcome of the election is likely to be disputed, especially so if there are observed lapses from the arrangements put in place by the electoral body. It would even seem to me that people are likely to be looking out for faults to discredit the elections.

    When we pair this observation with the high stakes of the election, one can then understand the stark reality that awaits this country in the next few days. But elections are not an end unto themselves but means for the advancement of public good. If that is the proper conception of the matter, why must hell let loose because one political party or individual failed to realize his ambition? Why has ethnicity and religion become prime considerations that determine the direction of the power matrix in this country? And if our leaders emerge on the basis of such mundane platforms, can they really pass as nationally acceptable leaders? Can they in all fairness, still remain loyal to the central authority irrespective of their attachment and loyalty to primordial considerations? These are some of the moot issues.

    Again, why are we simulating obstacles so as to find a convenient ground to wrestle the electoral body to the ground? And what of the likely consequences of such on the general wellbeing of the ordinary people that are being promised heaven and earth if they vote in a particular way? These are some of the contradictions arising from the polluted atmosphere that pervades the political atmosphere as we go into the elections.

    If blames are to be apportioned, the political class is largely culpable for heating up the political environment. And the reasons for this are largely self-serving. The same political elite that have despoiled this country, mortgaging its future are at it again. And in the pursuit of their personal interests, they have now mobilized the common people against each other.

    It is the same common people that will bear the brunt of whatever adverse repercussions that may arise out of a contentious election.

    If the overall interest of the people is the prime factor for seeking political office, nothing should be done to throw this country into crisis whatever the outcome of the polls. Our laws are replete with established processes for redress and those who feel shortchanged should avail themselves of such avenues. There must be conscious efforts to redirect this country from the part of a self-fulfilling prophesy of disintegrating this year. That is the huge challenge before us.

    Above all, much still depends on the INEC on the day of the election. The elections must not only be free and fair but must be seen to be so. Already, the electoral body has been put on edge. It does appear the electorate is not prepared to take excuses from it. It must therefore work hard to deliver to Nigerians an outcome that will give no room for acrimony. That is the surest way of disappointing those who are waiting for the slightest infractions to cause trouble.

  • Jonathan and the Yoruba

    Jonathan and the Yoruba

    There is an eerie rendezvous between love and politics. And we have seen this in the past few months, especially in the past two weeks.  They woo, they enact rites of affection and play chivalry. They cajole, beg, spend, date, hate the rivals. They exaggerate their own graces and reify their own sacrifices and extol even their generosities.

    The one with the big bulbous nose remoulds himself as the Adonis, sculpted with the delicacy of divine patience. The short man is actually taller than he seems, and the limping fellow is nothing but a hunk of swagger. Yes, like the world of romance, the bride is supreme. Even when her cooking is awful, you ask for more.

    In a sense, other ethnic groups in Nigeria must envy the Yoruba. They have become the bride of the season. But this is not new wisdom. The Yoruba have always illumined the path for the nation. When they do well, so does the nation. They are our conscience. In the First Republic, the collapse of the Western Region foreshadowed our descent into the dark scythe of war. Not long after the prophecies of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Second Republic fell. June 12 was a theatre of the Southwest.

    In this republic, are we surprised that the same region holds the ace? In development, Awo patented many firsts envied by other regions.

    Hence President Goodluck Jonathan has been playing the suitor-in-chief among the Yoruba. For the Yoruba he became a Christian, playing the roving evangelist from church to church. He also became an Ifa adherent, bowing for prayer with obas. He became a dollar merchant, bedecking politicians, obas and all sorts of hustlers. He turned a tourist, visiting different parts of Lagos, so much so that over 2,000 policemen were deployed for his service. He opened the city to criminals and robbers had a field day at Lekki. So, his visit had its toll in blood as the robbers lapped up some dear lives.

    He was also a tribalist. While courting the Yoruba vote, he incited the non-Yoruba against them. He said INEC was discriminating against non-indigenes on PVCs, as though he had the statistic. Even if he did, it was not the way leaders of unity spoke. But he didn’t have the statistic, and the INEC REC had shown the claim to be apocryphal.

    This same President wants the Yoruba to forget easily that he deployed soldiers to menace the inhabitants of the city in the cauldron of the subsidy showdown. He encouraged his kinsmen and followers to abuse Lagos as a citadel of spoilt brats. He neglected the city and even the region without a major landmark achievement in six years. He used condescending language at Ife a few months ago with a raft of Yoruba renegades who hosted him. He said, “ I will take care of the Yoruba.” What does that mean?

    Did Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, not ask him to confer a special status on Lagos? Did he not sneer at what the governor of example said with an outlandish parable about his uncle who spends his money in Lagos? Can we forget that?

    This is romance, Southwest zone. Jonathan has turned the Yoruba into his bride. This is cynical romance. He knew that if the election took place in February he would have been trounced dizzy. So, he decided to dollarise the campaign, to buy love. He “pieticised” the hustings, making himself an evangelist of all religions, and a faithful of none. For Islam, he rather asked the leaders to come to him at Aso Rock. But his men are parading phony Muslim leaders in the Southwest, too, as endorsement of Jonathan. Who else championed this than the whitlow of the West, the Mimic Mimiko of Ondo State. And Vice President Sambo, in the name of votes, described the PDP as the Muslim party after he and his Presidency with such foul mouths as Fani-Kayode had said APC was the Muslim party. Sambo listed all the major positions in the party and said the PDP is more Muslim than APC. Have we ever in our history had a more divisive era than that of Jonathan? He wants tribes and tongues to differ and the brotherhood of faiths to stumble.

    When bad leaders are emboldened, it is often the fault of the people. It is particularly true of President Jonathan. If he can go to his very home and say I have not done much for you, and he is hailed, our democracy must wail. The people see how tons of naira has gone unaccounted for and his immiserated people say, he is our son, so let him do it. The currency has tanked. For the first time in a generation, many states cannot pay civil servants salary, including states of his region. He rolls out antediluvian trains as a 21st century marvel. He claims he rebased the economy, believing the illusion that he gave us Nollywood and other areas of the economy. They were only now recognised. They were always there. He commissioned a power plant and darkness still overwhelms the people of Lagos. He should compare that with Governor Fashola’s fulfillment of the Oyingbo market dream. He promised it and he fulfilled it. Oyingbo is not just a market; it is history, it is a monument in the people’s imagination and a mainstay of folklore. Ebenezer Obey sang it into eternity: “Oja Oyingbo omo pe enikan o wa o…”

    Bad leaders like Jonathan try to abolish the people by killing their dreams. According to a Reuter’s report, a poor woman from Otuoke says this man has done nothing for her except a big university that is far away. He has established universities without a sense of economics. All the money in those new universities would have been used to expand the existing ones, and admit more students and recruit more staff and research centres. He sets up an almajiri school and his wife mocks them in public.

    Bad leaders abolish dreams by turning the people into their own image. Hence playwright Bertolt Brecht in a famous poem asserted that the leaders had lost confidence in the people. So they would dissolve the people and elect another people. Some thinkers say that good leaders make good people, bad leaders make bad people.

    But it is not so simple. The people have a way of emboldening the tyranny and imbecility of bad leaders. They do so by encouraging them when they misbehave. When a leader encourages contracts to militants and the same government says theft is on the increase, we wonder. If he approves of violence in Rivers State and says nothing when an OPC runs riot in Lagos, we agree that he is a despot cloaking as democrat. It means that when he says he loves the Southwest, he is a suitor without love. He is encouraged by the uncritical support among the Ijaw and the Igbo to think that if he does not perform, the Yoruba will also support him. Love does not define us but we define it.

    In his play, the Iceman Cometh, Nobel laureate Eugene Oneil’s main character kills his wife because she continues to forgive him. The woman is dreaming of a perfect husband and hopes that someday her forgiveness will pay off and he will be the man of his dreams. He kills his wife and kills the dream. Both the killer and victim cannot pursue the dream. The people commit suicide when they don’t give leaders standards, and the leaders kill the people’s dreams.

    If a Jonathan who promised Enugu-PH road, second Niger Bridge, et al, gets support for unfulfilled promises, why would he not renege if he is voted in? It is that logic that has made him think he can bribe his way into victory in the Southwest.

    If he can kill the Igbo and the Ijaw dream, why not the Yoruba, so he can stay in office. That is romance, Jonathan style. It is fatal romance, a kiss of death to the Nigerian dream.

  • ‘We must complete our eight years’

    Days to the country’s potentially reforming presidential election rescheduled for March 28, the language and logic of compulsion coming from the camp of President Goodluck Jonathan deserve contemplation and rejection.  In particular, the implication of coercion expressed by First Lady Patience Jonathan betrays the innermost recesses of her mind, and by possible and understandable extension, the likely evil within the presidential circle.

    Mrs. Jonathan said at a women’s rally in Benin, Edo State: “Everybody is staying there eight years. Now, it’s our turn. We must complete our eight years.”  She continued: “It is in the constitution of this country. Two, two terms. We will complete our two terms and hand over.”   Such dangerously simplistic thinking is even more terrorising because of its source. If the unenlightened belief in automaticity is the operating inspiration for Jonathan’s reelection ambition and campaign, it further exposes the appalling lack of democratic awareness and understanding in his sphere of influence.

    It is disturbing that Mrs. Jonathan, who must have spoken the minds of others of her ilk, reduced the concept of two possible terms in power to a mechanical construction.  In other words, in the wife’s view, her husband’s first-term performance in office shouldn’t be a factor for consideration by the electorate in the expected election. What should matter to voters, the thinking goes, is Jonathan’s constitutional eligibility for a second term in office, separate from any measurement of his first-term accomplishments, if any.

    What kind of democracy gives power to the people, and yet expects them to be powerless to remove a first-term failure and stop him from advancing to a second-term catastrophe?  Interestingly, perhaps because love is said to be blind, Mrs. Jonathan seems blind to her husband’s political minuses, for which a conscious electorate should punish him by voting him out.

    In this context, it is relevant to consider the dubious slogan of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP): Power to the People.   Against the background of Mrs. Jonathan’s demonstrated not-so-subtle sense of entitlement regarding a second presidential term for her husband,  the power of the people appears to be unrecognised, meaning that a powerless people is central to the achievement of her dream.         Fundamentally, the expected presidential election represents a priceless opportunity for the electorate to demonstrate not only discerning political consciousness but also confident mastery of its ultimate sovereignty. In other words, the election is better appreciated as a People Power Project. It is about the supremacy of the vote or the primacy of the voters. Power to the people is a catch-phrase that must be actualised by the people themselves for meaningful change.

    Probably the main the challenge facing the progressive camp in the countdown to the defining election is people mobilisation, which will likely come with the difficulty of spreading political awareness and enlightenment as well as delivering the crucial message of the need for game-changing political action within a population that is usually fatalistically absorbent. Indeed, how far the people are ready to go to protect the sacredness of their votes will be decisive.

    Importantly, the people need to respond in the clearest of terms to Mrs. Jonathan’s misconception of her husband’s misrule by expressing through their votes the popular perception concerning his unpopularity. It is thought-provoking that at another PDP women’s presidential rally in Ilorin, Kwara State, Mrs. Jonathan said: “Nigerian women, if they (APC) come, tell them that your mother said you should not listen to them. They have nothing to offer. They have nothing to give you, Nigerian women; because the battle has already been conquered, God has opened the way for us. God has brought down the messiah for us. And PDP is the messiah. Goodluck is the messiah.”

    It is unsurprising that the closer the election, the more corrupted the political talk, especially by a party of corrupt and corrupting features. On crooked thinking, it may be impossible to beat the thought that links the purity of the divine with the observable impurity and impunity of the PDP and its governmental hierarchs, particularly President Jonathan. It should be interesting to have an idea of Mrs. Jonathan’s idea of God as well as her definition of a messiah.   Still on clarifications, Mrs. Jonathan may need to be more clarifying about her concept of peace.  She also said in Ilorin: “PDP is not shaken; as far as we are there, there is no need for trouble. You know that Mama Peace, your mother, is peace-loving, so the children must also be peace-loving. Women are peacemakers and no woman that makes trouble is worth to be called a woman.”

    Interestingly, the questions that must follow such innocent self-disqualification are: Does Mrs. Jonathan stand for womanhood? Can she be called a woman? When in December 2013 she re-introduced herself as Mama Peace, Nigerians were anxious to find out whether the publicised change of name would make any difference not only to her public conduct but also to public perception of her personality. The so-called name-change sounded like a publicity stunt prompted by pressure from “social anxiety,” which was graspable in the light of her markedly unflattering public image.

    According to her at the time, “My name is no more Patience but now Mama Peace because I believe that without peace, there will be no more women, no more children and no more health sector. Without peace, the international community will be afraid to come and invest in our country.” She also said: “Peace is from the heart and not from the tongue or lips; not what you say but what is in you.” From the look of things, whatever might have been responsible for Mrs. Jonathan’s new-found song on “peace evangelism,” it appears that she would benefit from further education on the basics of the concept. She still needs to learn from her own words, if they were not uttered hypocritically, but that seems more and more to be the case.

    Apart from the reality that her record of imperiousness has not changed, Mrs. Jonathan’s campaign utterances show that a name-change cannot be the same thing as conscious self-redefinition. This is still the old, familiar lady of battle, and it is difficult to recognise any change.

    What if the people go against Mrs. Jonathan’s ridiculous argument that her husband “must” be reelected irrespective of his track record that makes him unelectable? What if the people rubbish her nonsensical view that her husband and his party have a messianic value?

  • Aso Villa voices and follies

    There are times when the reverse appears more profound than the original. This is the case with the fascinating quote by Walter Lippmann: “It requires wisdom to understand wisdom.”  Perhaps more insightfully, it may be said: “It requires folly to understand folly.”

    Such knowing folly was effectively exhibited by the Chief of Staff to President Goodluck Jonathan, Brig. Gen. Jones Arogbofa (retd), in an interview that betrayed the quality of those who work with the man at the top.  To be fair, Arogbofa said: “In politics, your loyalty is to your party, it’s to your boss, it’s to your leader.” In other words, he is guided in office by the notion that the boss is always right.

    He also said: “Out of nowhere, Jonathan picked me up and made me his Chief of Staff. It is a position of confidence, a position of trust, a position where you expect somebody loyal to sit and be able to watch your back.”  That must be why his response to a question on public criticism of Jonathan was: “In the first place, I don’t even know what they are criticising him for. So if you feed me, maybe I will be able to have a better answer.”

    With such a Jonathan-can-do no-wrong mentality, it was understandable that Arogbofa went on to say: “I haven’t spent much time here, I have spent barely one year here and I’m learning, I am learning through a very good master, in person of Mr. President. He is such a teacher who allows everything to be perfect. You can’t make a mistake with him not to cross your ‘Ts’ and dot your ‘Is’, he will call your attention to it that you can’t do this, you have to do it right. So it’s been a wonderful period of time for me.”  He continued: “And when you work with a master whose mastery is awesome, you have to be on your toes all the time.”  This romantic delineation of Jonathan prompts an important question: Could he be speaking about the same allegedly “clueless” Jonathan?

    Interestingly, his answer to a question related to the widely condemned mountainous scale of official corruption in the country inadvertently revealed why corruption is king. Arogbofa said: “Even my conduct, my integrity and so on, they border on corruption. If I am sitting before you now and I am lying to you about what is not happening here, then am I not corrupt?  This is so because I am misguiding the people and that’s not supposed to be the situation.”  If Arogbofa consciously believed his hard sell, or expected the people to fall for his performance hook, line, and sinker, it would suggest how well-adjusted he must be among the corrupt and the corrupted or how little he thinks of the collective intelligence.   Arogbofa reinforced his simplistic reasoning by adding: “So I believe that Goodluck Jonathan is fighting corruption; he is doing his best. I cannot go and meet him as a man and say, sir, approve this for me, no way. He will be sure that what you want from him is what you need to get the job done and that is the true position of things.”   If this is all it takes to qualify for an anti-corruption crown, then the anti-corruption war must be far from a crowning glory.

    This voice of folly is in good company at Aso Villa, considering the collaboration with Jonathan’s spokesman and media adviser Reuben Abati who has pushed his obsession with his boss well into the realm of foolishness.  Abati curiously insists that the electorate needs a presidential debate to make a choice between President Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the presidential poll rescheduled for March 28. It is noteworthy that he noted in a statement on Buhari’s alleged avoidance of a debate: “There is no gainsaying the fact that President Jonathan and General Buhari are the main contenders in this election. Every Nigerian would love to see the two of them debate. That would be good for our democracy.”

    Abati further said on Buhari: “His deliberate avoidance of a Presidential debate is akin to an examination malpractice. It is not good enough for a man who wants to be President of our country. He is short-changing the Nigerian electorate by denying them the opportunity of assessing him properly in an open debate.” He added: “While a Presidential debate is not a constitutional requirement, it is an established convention that deepens and enriches the democratic process.” According to Abati, “President Jonathan is ready to meet him in an open debate, any day, any hour, and at any venue of his choice.”

    Now, how would Abati describe the jolting rearrangement of the election dates by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), allegedly influenced by the Jonathan camp? What kind of “malpractice” could this be, and what does it say about a man who is seeking presidential reelection?

    It is a pathetic reflection of Abati’s distance from reality that he regards “an open debate” as an opportunity for the electorate to “properly” assess the candidates. He conveniently downplayed the defining value of electioneering as well as the wisdom of the electorate. Abati must be living in a fool’s paradise to believe that a presidential debate of an hour or so would conclusively convince voters to reelect Jonathan, when his low-grade performance in office and his unconvincing political campaign speak of failure.

    What this means is that Abati’s promotion of a presidential debate is much ado about nothing. It is unlikely that any perceptive voter would need to listen to Jonathan and Buhari debate before taking a voting decision. In case Abati doesn’t understand, and that seems to be the case, the candidates have been engaged in an informal but discernible debate based on their antecedents, their personalities and what they represent; and the people have followed this debate by other means with a keen and concentrated interest.

    For instance, when Buhari is portrayed and recognised as a game-changing player of unstained integrity, and Jonathan is seen as a cunning champion of corruption, the collision has the ingredients of a debate.

    In particular, it is evident from Abati’s fixation with a debate that he must number among the parochial who failed to grasp the import of Buhari’s February appearance and performance at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House in London. Buhari’s lecture was fittingly titled “Prospect for Democracy Consolidation in Africa: Nigeria’s transition”; and he glowed impressively during the question-and-answer session that followed.  It was certainly not a picture of a debate-shy man. But Abati is clearly reality-shy, not to call him narrow-minded.

    Arogbofa and Abati are a study in how the mind operates in Aso Villa; they are also a study in how the mind does not work at The Villa.